High School Formal
So the weekend after my son has this musical, my daughter was invited to a formal at her old school.
OMG! I almost panicked because we were so low on funds and I didn't know what to do. Well I dove into the pile of projects we never got around to and I found an Asian style shirt pattern and lots of brocade!!!! It was perfect! Again the brocade was one I got from JoAnn's on the clearance rack for like $4 a yard when it was normally like $12. I'm so glad I had money at one point to pick up a lot of bargains.It's a beautiful black with red flowers and I had like 4 yards of it. So I had enough to make a dress but only 4 days, including a Saturday to make it.
I was determined to do a muslin first because I wanted to make sure I had the right size, there wasn't much room for failure, and she wanted these dramatic big sleeves. I'm glad I did because I didn't like the way they turned out. I don't know if it was because the fabric was light or the way they were drafted but I didn't like the angles of the sleeves on the shirt. I also had to figure out a skirt because the pattern I had didn't have a skirt pattern. I found one and tried it out in a muslin but the waist was very high and I needed to draft a new one. Well my pattern making skills only go so far as to making T style robes so I didn't feel very confident about the endeavor and put it aside for last.I talked her into a short sleeve which looked much better and started cutting out the pieces. All this took until Friday night. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal to put it all together Saturday morning, my son's pajama top only took 3-4 hours. Boy was I wrong. It took me ALL DAY to do just the top and my daughter was a couple of hours late. I felt bad about that, and I didn't get the skirt done so she had to put on a plain black one, but it did turn out really nice. The most surprising thing about the construction was that the sleeves went in perfectly the first time with minimal pinning. I don't know if it was because I was getting better or the fabric but I had no problems. Everyone was amazed I made it. It made me proud.
muslin - didn't like the sleeves
muslin - better sleeves
finished top
Because it was brocade, I wanted to finish the seam allowances with a Hong Kong finish and I started to do it but it was taking too long and in the end my husband ended up melting some of the seams so they wouldn't fray. That left them a little itchy on the inside so she wore a tank top under. Then I went back after the weekend and finished the seams right. I would recommend the fabric to anyone. It wasn't as hard to work with as I thought it might be. That's why I hadn't started it before, I was a bit afraid of it. Zigzag stitching is also a good finish for the seam allowances. I did that on the sleeves because I was in a hurry. Please ignore the neck facing, it didn't go in very evenly but it was because I was hurrying.
seam finishes
I still don't have pics with her in it but I will after I get the skirt done. I decided I wanted to get the pattern for that instead of trying to alter one.
ETA: its Simplicity 5098